July 10 Game Notes: Iowa Cubs @ Indianapolis Indians

IOWA CUBS (37-45) @ INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS (39-42)

Sunday, July 10, 2022 • 12:35 PM CT • Victory Field • Indianapolis, IN

RHP Javier Assad (0-0, 4.15) vs. LHP Zach Matson (0-1, 6.00)

TODAY’S GAME: Iowa and Indianapolis are set to play the series finale of their six-game set today, with Javier Assad facing off against Zach Matson. Assad will make his second start of the series and of his Triple-A career after making his debut in game one of the series back on Monday. The righty earned a no-decision, allowing just two earned runs over 4.1 innings. Despite tying his season high in hits allowed with eight, he walked just two batters and worked around the traffic with two strikeouts to keep Indianapolis at bay. Opposite of Assad will be Matson, set to make his 12th appearance and fifth start of the year for the Indians. The southpaw enters today’s game with an 0-1 record and a 6.00 ERA through his first 11 appearances. He has allowed 10 earned runs on 15 hits while walking eight and striking out eight over 15.0 innings with Indianapolis.

DOMINANT DERMODY: Matt Dermody gave the I-Cubs his strongest start of the season last night, going five shutout innings, allowing only two hits, and striking out a career-high ten batters. The lefty has bounced between the rotation and a long-relief role for Iowa this season, but has now made 11 starts, which is just one off from his single-season career high, set in 2014. He leads the I-Cubs in innings, with 65.1, and his win last night was his fourth of the year, which is also a team high. His ten punchouts tied the I-Cubs’ high by a single pitcher this season, previously set by Matt Swarmer, and brought his total on the season to 56 - nine shy of his career high for a single season. With last night’s scoreless outing in the books, Dermody is now 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA (4ER/23.1IP) and 22 strikeouts over his last five outings.

HAVE A SERIES: After a rocky series against Columbus, Iowa’s bullpen has been outstanding this series, allowing just three earned runs in their 22.1 innings pitched. Over that span, they have combined to allow just five walks while striking out 35 batters, keeping Iowa in every game so far. All three relievers in yesterday’s game for Iowa struck out at least two batters and allowed no more than two hits.

JACKSON IN ACTION: Jackson Frazier went 3-for-5 last night with a second-inning grand slam that contributed to a career-high six RBI. It was the first grand slam of Frazier’s professional career and the third by an I-Cub this season. Frazier has now hit safely in seven of his last eight games, boosting his season average with Iowa to .237. In the first ten games the outfielder played for the I-Cubs after being outrighted, he went just 8-for-41 with three doubles. That was good for a .195 average and a .268 slugging percentage. Since the calendar turned to July, however, Frazier has turned it on, going 11-for-29 with four home runs through eight games. That has given him a .379 average and a team-leading .828 slugging percentage this month. He has also collected 15 RBI over that span, which is the most by an I-Cub this month, and accounted for over a third of Iowa’s total run production (15-of-42).

GOING BACK-TO-BACK: With his grand slam yesterday, Jackson Frazier now has home runs in back-to-back games. It marked the ninth time this year that an I-Cubs player has hit a home run in back-to-back games, the same amount Iowa had all of last year. Last year, Iowa didn’t have a single player hit a home run in more than two consecutive games and this year there has already been three players hit home runs in four straight games for Iowa. No Iowa player had hit a home run in four consecutive games since 2019 and prior to that there is no records of any I-Cubs player hitting a home run in four straight games dating back to at least 2008.

SIMPLY A HITTER: I-Cubs Manager Marty Pevey found his leadoff hitter in the second game of the year, when he put Dixon Machado at the top of the lineup. In that game, the shortstop went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, a run batted in and three walks. His two hits and three walks put him on base in five of his six plate appearances, exactly what you need out of a leadoff hitter. Since then, Machado has been slotted into the leadoff spot in 80% (66-of-82) of Iowa’s games this year. He collected two more hits and a walk last night, going 2-for-4 with three runs scored, a triple, a walk and a rare strikeout. His two-hit night gave him 20 multi-hit games on the year, good for the team lead. He also leads the team in games played (72), hits (83), doubles (14) and walks (42). Entering today’s series finale, Machado ranks eighth in the International League in batting average at .295, fifth in on-base percentage with a .393 and seventh in hits with 83. He has reached base via a base hit, walk or hit by pitch in 92 % (66-of-72) of his games now. Iowa is 30-36 in games that Machado leads off and 7-9 in games with a different player at the top of the lineup.

AGAINST INDIANAPOLIS: Iowa will take a 3-2 series lead into today’s finale with a chance to win their first road series of the year. With their win last night, the I-Cubs moved to 5-6 against Indianapolis this year and 36-53 all-time against the Indians. That includes being 10 games under the .500 mark at 17-27 here on the road against Indy. With their nine-run victory last night, Iowa tied the season scoring at 41-41 entering the series finale today, and lead the scoring through the current series 26-17. After today’s game, Iowa will return to Victory Field one more time this year for another six-game set from August 16-21.

SHORT HOPS: After two runs in the first inning last night, Iowa has scored 61 runs in the first inning this year, 14 more runs than they have scored in any other inning (4th, 47)… Nelson Maldonado pinch-hit and drew a walk last night, putting the I-Cubs at a .455 (5-for-11) clip with six walks when they pinch-hit this season…Iowa struck out 17 batters as a team last night, tying their season high set back on April 30, also against Indianapolis.